‘A Slave In The White House’ Coming To ABC?

Vixen

With Lee Daniels’ star-studded film The Butler busting down the theatre doors this past summer by depicting the state of the White House during the Civil Rights Movement, ABC will be extending the theme to a new show.

According to Vulture, the network is developing a twelve-hour miniseries based on Elizabeth Dowding Taylor’s book A Slave in the White House, which details the life of Peter Jennings, a slave who worked for President James Madison as a child and eventually bought his own emancipation from Daniel Webser. Jennings also wrote the first White House memoir titled, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison, which was originally published in 1865.

“Since A Slave In The White House is a father-and-son story at heart, it carries even more resonance for me now,” Wilson said. “I’ll be dedicating the show to my dad. I’m just grateful that he was able to share in a little bit of the joy of this success that he’d always desired for me as a writer.”